The new Akatsuki
by 4Dragons
Summary: At the end of the fourth shinobi world war something happened that will change the course of history. After a strange dream Naruto was changed forever, smarter, stronger and better. But he will be tested to his limits by deadly new foes, the Akatsuki will be coming for him, and nothing shall be the same again. Slightly Op Naruto PossiblyNaruxHina Rated T for later chapters
1. A Dream of Shadows and Ramen

Kadabi Dakato was a normal Iwa genin who lived and died during the fourth Shinobi World War. At least, that's how his life would have gone, had the greatest Biju and most powerful demon in the world, not saved him. Not that his life improved much. As the legendary Biju, the Ten Tails, was to be split back into lesser beasts it made a dying wish.

One wish, one act. Nothing would ever be the same again.

One week before the Hidden Leaf Village's genin exams, two years before the Shinobi World War. two small things changed. The first: A boy stepped out of nowhere in a small clearing on the edge of fire county. The boy wore a brown loose jumpsuit with a red scarf around his waist; he also had a Iwa headband and he gave off such an evil aura that the grass beneath his feet wilted and died. He looked about, disorientated, but quickly remembered his new purpose and begun to walk. The second thing was that a young boy named Naruto Uzumaki, woke up and decided to be a new person.

Naruto was a loudmouth, it wasn't necessarily his fault, but he still was. He had grown up in a village that hated him, for no particular reason. He was desperate to get attention from people, even if he had to annoy them. So he did, he annoyed, and he yelled, and he wanted respect. His life's ambition was to become Hokage, for the respect and power the position would give him.

Naruto Uzumaki was dreaming. In his dream he was training, but he was doing great. He was hitting tragets without fail and was using amazing jitsu he had never ever imagined. He was beating S ranked missing nin with one hand and then Sakura came walking up to him and she was beautiful and she told him he was the new Hokage. He went to a ceremony where the whole village was cheering and telling him he was amazing and he got the Hokage's robes put on and then he said to the masses.

"Now let us eat ramen"

And they cheered and cheered and cheered. Then the dream took a turn for the strange. Four distorted figures stood in a semicircle around him, like a court. All four wore concealing cloaks that were black with scattered clouds of red. Three wore straw hats, the fourth was slightly different. She had brown hair and a pretty face. Her cloak was wrapped tightly around her more like a kimono then a cloak. The smallest figure stepped forward, he was even smaller then Naruto, his straw hat, adorned with a tassel of red thread, hid his face. He gave of such a fiery fury that Naruto felt his Hokage clothes smoulder and fade to ash.

"You are weak" Said the boy. "You are unworthy of your gift. I am coming for you, and you better be ready for it." Naruto tried to speak, but his mouth couldn't open. Then the boy looked up. In the second before the dream ended Naruto saw he had three wiskerlike marks on each cheek.

* * *

Naruto sat up and walked to his fridge. The milk was out of date, he threw it in the bin and ate his cereal plain. He went to walk out the door but then he was struck by a sudden thought: Who was he? What did he want to do with his life? Lost in thought he walked out the door. He let his feet take him somewhere while he thought. He had never ever thought so deeply. But then he crashed into a girl.

"N-naruto?" she said, sounding frightened.

"Hinata?" Naruto said, surprised. Hinata blushed furiously and a woman with the same pearly eyes, typical of the Hyuga clan, hurried her on. Naruto hung his head, not sure what he had done.

It was strange, he thought. That in a street so crowded, everyone avoided him, like he was an island in a stream. The adults hurried their children past and some gave him unpleasant looks. A big man spat at his feet. Naruto winced; it had always been this way. Ever since he remembered people whispered things, some swore at him, some ignored him. Sometimes great mobs had gathered outside his house, and then Naruto would run for his life, escaping through the back window as his hose was ransacked. He had never thought about _why_ they did it. It struck him now that he had never wondered. He looked down at himself, plain clothes, except for his orange and white jacket. He pulled out a strand of yellow hair; other people had hair like his, the Yondame Hokage, for example. While he thought his feet began moving again. Several minutes later he found himself at an empty training ground.

"_Let's go! Exams in one week and I'm gonna pass! Believe it!" _Naruto made a seal and then hesitated. He wasn't sure what to do, what jitsu did he know? What handseals? The answer was basically none on both counts. So… There was only one jitsu that he really knew, Kawarimi no jitsu, Substitution jitsu. It was easy and fun, well worth learning for a prankster. He had never seen or imagined it being used much in a battle, but now he was thinking differently he saw it was actually really valuable. The ability to change a situation, to shuffle everyone's position, at will. Why had no one seen this before? Naruto wasn't to know that this was the Yondame Hokage's greatest technique: Flying Thunder God.

Naruto began practicing with fervour never before seen, he was determined to get these handseals down to a second, and Substitute with moving targets. Over the whole day he practiced, and finally, when the sun went down he had an exercise that most jonin couldn't have done. From a standing position Naruto cast a kunai at a dummy. From there he substituted with the dummy, putting himself in the path of his kunai. Then he would substitute again, with the kunai, to evade it. As he went back home a loud growl from his stomach reminded Naruto that he had not eaten all day.

The next day Naruto went back to the training field. Before beginning his practice he considered himself. He knew he was bad at handseals, he knew he was bad at chakra control. His taijitsu was mediocre and his genjitsu awful. There was however, one advantage he had: His massive chakra supply. He could use chakra all day and still have some. An idea sparked in Naruto's mind, he grinned a foxy grin and began to practice.

* * *

On the day that the genin exams were to be held Naruto was supremely confident. He had worked harder than ever before, he was sure he knew every technique that he could possibly be tested on. The first part of the exam was the written test. It wasn't much good, but he got at least some right. Next up was the physical exam. In taijitsu Naruto had to spar, with… Shikamaru Nara. Shikamaru was the laziest person in class, and bad at taijitsu. Naruto beat him easily. Shuriken jitsu, followed by kunai throwing, finally the sensei, Iruka, put a genjitsu on each person in class and had them escape it. The second last test was the one Naruto had been looking forward to most. The test was to destroy a reinforced dummy in any way. Most people took kunai and slashed it apart, but there were two who stood out. Sasuke Uchiha, the arrogant prodigy used an impressive fireball to burn it down. Also Kiba Inuzuka, who used a clan jitsu to give himself claws and fangs. Finally came Naruto, he stopped a metre or so from the dummy, then he raised one hand and unleased his best new jitsu. He swiped his hand at the dummy like an axe. Some of the others, who stood at a certain angle watching, saw a narrow blue beam strike the target. The blue beam cut through it like paper.

The surrounding genin were interested in this power, but it wasn't as impressive as Sasuke's fireball, so they soon forgot it. All exept one, Hinata Hyuga had seen, via the byakugan, exactly what Naruto had done. It was amazing, she had never seen anything like it but she had no idea how it was possible. The final test was next, one by one the gennin each went into a seperate room to do it. Hinata was able to see through the walls with her eyes and she saw each gennin perform a simple clone jitsu. She begun to feel nervous, not because she would fail, she was good at clone jitsu, but because she knew Naruto wasn't. Whenever she could she would go and watch him train, she had seen him fail time and time again. She had watched him throw tantrums, and faint from chackra exaustion. It was his worst technique.

* * *

Far away someone else was going through a test too. Nine figures stood in a group, watching him impassively. The boy waited patiently while they dicussed amongst themselves. Then as a group they turned to him.

"We agree." Said the tallest, a man with a massive sword and sharklike features. One of the others, wearing a strange mask with only one eyehole couldnt restrain himself:

"Tobi no likey"

"Tobi, shut up" Said one of the others, a man who seemed to speak in several voices at once.

"Sempai" Said the masked one, Tobi, sounding very miserable. The first man, the shark, snorted in amusement.

"With respect, I am also displeased. This, child_, _claims to be what we have been seeking for many years now. From the future no less." The man who had spoke aimed his blood red, three bladed scythe at the aforementioned boy in a threatening manner.

"Agreed" Growled his partner, a large man with a mask.

"Disagreed" Shot back one of the others, a teenage boy with the distinctive red eyes of the sharengan. "This is better than the other plan"

"By all means continue to discuss it" Spoke the boy, with a voice that cut through the argument like a knife. "I will wait"

* * *

**Author's Note: Well, that was the first chapter of my first fanfiction. I hope you like it, please please reveiw.**

**I shall attepmt to post chapter 2 within the week. -_4Dragons_**


	2. Becomming a Genin

Hinata watched in growing fear, she could see Naruto through the wall of the exam room. She watched him come to a stop before Iruka Sensei and Mizuki Sensei, she saw him talk to them quietly. Then he gathered chakra. She knew something was wrong, this wasn't a clone. Naruto built more and more chakra. He yelled a word, Hinata didn't hear it. Then he moved.

Naruto was feeling nervous; he knew he was caught out. The clone technique was his worst. Once he had got the most basic clone he had given up on the jitsu. He knew that he probably could get it, but he felt it was useless. He couldn't substitute with it, it couldn't do jitsu or attack physically, if he wanted to confuse people he'd learn genjitsu.

When he entered the room he saw Mizuki Sensei first, smiling encouragingly. Iruka Sensei stood behind a table with ninja headbands, all bearing the leaf symbol, arrayed neatly on it.

"Well Naruto, your scores up until now have been surprising. I was expecting them to be poor but I am delighted to see you trying at last." Iruka smiled at Naruto like it was a compliment. Naruto supposed it was.

"The last part of this test is to create a clone." Mizuki interjected. "Well, three clones to be accurate." In his mind Mizuki had already started to hatch a plan. Naruto hesitated.

"Can't I do some other jitsu?" he asked.

"No" Mizuki stated, he was already hoping Naruto would fail. Iruka frowned,

"We'll see Naruto. But I want you to try the clone jitsu anyway." Iruka too was hatching a plan, he wanted to see Naruto's strange new Jitsu, and he did want the boy to pass, despite what the boy had done to him in the past. Naruto briefly outlined his reasons to dislike this jitsu, and asked again if he could do a different one.

Both Mizuki and Iruka spoke at the same time.

"Can't do that Naruto, sorry"

"Ok, I want to see the one from earlier" Iruka and Mizuki stared at each other, surprised. Iruka however, was the senior teacher, despite Mizuki being a stronger ninja.

"Jitsu from earlier Naruto." He repeated. Naruto found himself sighing, he had been hoping to keep this one secret, but he suspected there would be no leeway on this deal.

"You asked for it" He said "but I'll aim it away from you."

He then began to gather his chakra. Focusing it in his hand, no handseals required. To Iruka this jitsu was looking scarily similar to the Rasengan, the fourth Hokage's deadly attack jitsu. He backed several steps away. The chakra focused into a flat disk in Naruto's hand, spinning slowly. Then he whipped his hand at the far wall:

"Rasengan, Katana!" He yelled. The blue disk of pure chakra extended and narrowed, forming the thinnest sharpest sword, deadlier than any sword of metal. The sword extended to a length of three metres to hit the far wall, carving a deep but very narrow groove through it. The blade fizzled out into formless chakra.

"I was saving that as a secret" Naruto complained, Iruka was in shock. Mizuki wasn't much better off.

"Naruto, that's, that's a secret, A rank, jitsu." Naruto shook his head,

"It can't be, I only made it up last week."

"No, not that, the Rasengan, how do you know it?" Naruto shrugged,

"A scroll sitting on a locked box in the archive, it had an eyewitness account of the Yondaime Hokage fighting the Kyuubi. Is it true that the Rasengan was enough to break its jaw?"

Iruka was rightly horrified. A scroll had been left out, a scroll with information that allowed a genin to create a version of an A ranked technique. He continued questioning Naruto.

"And you tried it?"

"Yep, but it was really tricky. The way you have to have multiple rotations in different directions was too much."

"So?"

"So I made a simpler version." Naruto was looking more and more pleased. "Do I pass?"

"Stop!" Cried Mizuki, realising the conversation had continued without him. "These are exceptional circumstances. We will have to speak to the Hokage himself" His plan was revivable, but only just.

"We will know by tomorrow" Iruka said. Naruto didn't knick up a fuss, he simply left quietly. It made Iruka nervous.

* * *

Hinata was torn by indecision. Naruto hadn't got a headband, but he wasn't upset either, and then there was that strange jitsu. Curiosity and shyness battled for supremacy within her.

"Naruto? What hap…?" She blurted out before shyness overtook her. He turned around and saw her begin to blush.

"Hinata?" He said in surprise. She almost ran away, it took all her determination to keep facing him

"What happened?" She whispered. Naruto bit his lip, but something within him chose to trust her.

"I made a new jitsu. They are seeing the Hokage about it." He said simply. "It was based off knowledge I got from a scroll I shouldn't really have seen."

"Did you… Pass?" She asked, terrified that he would say no.

"I don't know." Naruto said "they're telling me tomorrow" Hinata nodded, she seemed to want to speak more, but then her Hyuga escort saw her and hurried her away.

* * *

Naruto was awake still, despite the fact that it near midnight. He couldn't sleep. He went out and got dressed, as he wandered the rooftops he saw Mizuki sitting at a ledge. Naruto went and sat next to him, neither spoke for a while. It was like a bonding moment.

"Naruto, you're in luck. The Hokage has set you another test, but if you pass it, then you graduate." Naruto stayed silent. Mizuki continued

"In the Hokage's office there is a scroll, the scroll is a tiebreaker. This means the scroll is sometimes used for giving people extra points in an exam. If you can take the scroll from the tower and bring it to Iruka and myself then you will graduate." Mizuki went on to describe the scroll and the meeting point. He also guaranteed the Hokage wouldn't be in the tower. Naruto considered it a while.

"No." He said.

"No?" Mizuki asked. "You'll fail."

"I want to see proof. This just feels wrong." He stated. Mizuki had to restrain from swearing. He hurriedly resumed his act

"I'll see what I can do." Mizuki said, getting up and leaving quickly. "But remember this is supposed to be a secret test, otherwise we would have graduates planning their exams to get a look at the techniques in this scroll."

The second Mizuki was out of sight Naruto ran for it, he wasn't sure what Mizuki was up to, but he knew it would be bad for him. A week ago he might have fallen for the bait, but Naruto just knew somehow that Mizuki was planning something. As he chose a watching place he was proved right. Mizuki crept out of the shadows, shuriken at the ready. Seeing the blond had gone Mizuki swore, he then moved off again, but Naruto could tell Mizuki was searching for him.

* * *

Getting to the Hokage's office at night is tricky enough, but Naruto had to go silently, least Mizuki find him. It was a nightmare of blind corners and dark crevices. Naruto imagined Mizukis behind every barrel and stall, but he only once saw the Shinobi pass above him in the flesh. When he was almost to the Hokage tower Naruto encountered a second problem. The chunin squad standing guard wouldn't let him in. Not that he asked to enter, he knew that they would send him away at best, or lock him up at worst. Then he saw Mizuki again. The chunin came out of the shadows less than five metres from Naruto's hiding place, Naruto didn't even see him. Mizuki spoke quietly to the guards and then entered the tower. Naruto watched as the guards formed a close pack before the door, he knew there would be no getting in this way. He decided to climb the west face of the tower, as it was facing away from the village and potential watchers. The tower was difficult to climb, Naruto had to use Kunai to dig into crevices in the stone. He entered the one window he knew would be unlocked. He knew this window would be unlocked because Mizuki told him so; this was the window to the scroll library.

* * *

As Naruto crept through the scroll library he couldn't resist finding the scroll Mizuki had told him about. It was a big scroll, tied with a rope of golden thread. Naruto broke it open and began to read. He hadn't intended to be long at it, but soon he opened a spare scroll that he had in his pockets and began to copy it down. He didn't read it, just looked at each word and copied it, and so he didn't even realise how deadly the jitsu within were. By the time he stopped he had four whole techniques in his scroll. He stopped because he heard someone walk past the door. Then he realised he'd been at work for nearly an hour and dawn wasn't far away. He hurriedly put the scroll back and ran out the door. He then went to the Hokage's office and listened at the keyhole.

"Sorry to interrupt Mizuki, please continue now" Said the Hokage

"Thank you, as I was saying I saw Naruto before I came here. He was on the rooftops, he came and sat with me. Then he accused me of murdering him and wanting to steal the Forbidden scroll. Ridiculous and untrue, as Naruto was very clearly alive at the time" Mizuki said.

"I don't think Naruto would say that sort of stuff." Iruka said. Naruto could see what Mizuki was trying to do, and he could guess what the Shinobi would say before he said it:

"Neither do I. But since last week, about when he might have figured this jitsu, he has changed. Iruka, I know you've seen it too. He is different and I think his mind has been affected." Naruto took an involuntary breath, Mizuki had outwitted him perfectly.

"This jitsu couldn't do that to a person, it is little different to the Rasengan" Said the Hokage "Learning it wouldn't sent anyone mad"

"With respect Hokage, this is the Jinchuuriki of the nine tailed fox we are talking about; it is different from us in ways we still don't understand."

Naruto was getting confused, Jinch-what? Nine tailed fox? The nine tailed fox was dead and gone, the fourth Hokage had defeated it.

"You think I should fail him?" Asked the Hokage

"No!" Said Iruka

"No, Hokage-sama, this new personality might even be an improvement. But Naruto didn't seem quite right when I talked to him earlier." Mizuki said. "And in class he hasn't been pranking or messing around, he has been listening intently, even more the Sasuke Uchiha, it really is unnerving."

"I have Naruto's test results here" Iruka spoke up. "He aced the physical and he came in the top half of the written test, just below Shikamaru. I think he should pass." The Hokage hummed thoughtfully. When he spoke Naruto could practically hear the smile in his voice.

"What do you think of this Naruto?" Naruto froze, the game was up. He opened the door and went in; Mizuki covered his guilty look hurriedly. The Hokage spoke.

"This jitsu is forbidden for a reason"

"I didn't know it was a forbidden jitsu, I just modified it to make it simple. Also I figured that it didn't need so much chakra, and that it's range could be improved." He said

"Surely you realised how dangerous it could be?" The Hokage asked. Naruto nodded

"Hypothetically it could extend to infinite lengths, but I don't have enough chakra to do that." He said. The Hokage nodded.

"So, Naruto, should we pass you?" He said, Naruto barely kept the scowl of his face, he hated people asking him questions that he wasn't going to have any say in.

"I want you to pass me" He said.

"Well, you have shown great inventiveness, despite a lack of regard for the rules. In addition you have passed all the tests Iruka and Mizuki set for you. So in the end I have no concrete reason to fail you. But there are a few more things, firstly, stay away from scrolls that you aren't allowed to see." Naruto suddenly felt uncomfortable, his thoughts went to the scroll in his pocket, the scroll with four forbidden techniques inside.

"And more importantly, the thing you heard Mizuki say, about the nine tailed fox. I…" The Hokage paused, and in that moment he looked very old and weary. He gestured Mizuki and Iruka out the door.

"I have some explaining to do. But before that, congratulations! Naruto, I hereby award you the rank of genin!" Naruto whooped, and the Hokage held out a headband with the symbol of a leaf on it.

* * *

The Akatsuki stood once again in a half circle around the boy. They were not happy.

"You appear to be missing three members" he said coldly. "Kakizu, Hidan and… Tobi, correct?" The boy smiled without any humour.

"They left, taking their rings with them" Itachi Uchiha growled. "That's four rings lost"

"No" Said a deep new voice, the boy turned to see Zetsu, the half black, half white spy. Zetsu stepped forward ponderously, from each side of his body two massive plant like appendages grew, making him look like a walking Venus fly trap.

"I have the rings." He said. He opened his hand to reveal the three rings. He smiled; the smile looked strange on his half and half face. The boy frowned, from his extensive knowledge of the Akatsuki he had been expecting Zetsu to side with Tobi.

"Then the Akatsuki has three new vacancies." This time when the boy smiled there was genuine humour in it. "Meet my candidates, Godai and Haku."

* * *

**Authors Note: Yes, Haku. Haku in this story is female, if you dislike it dont read it. The land of waves arc wont be happening, BUT Haku, Zabuza, Gato and possibly the villagers of the land of waves will appear over the story. Godai is an OC. Please reveiw if you have an idea for the story.**


	3. A Disfunctioanal Team

Kakashi Hatake was always late. It was a well-known habit of his, and it was fun. He enjoyed always being late. He was late now, two and a half hours late, according to the screaming girl in the room he was heading too.

"OUR SENSEI IS TWO AND A HALF HOURS LATE! WHAT COULD POSSIBLY TAKE SO LONG?!"

Kakashi flinched; the sound had nearly busted his eardrums, so he could barely imagine how bad her teammates must have felt. He mentally reviewed the profile he had been given on her:

Sakura Haruno, the girl had scored well in the written test. Dismally in the practical, but was good at creating clones. She was also a worthless fangirl by all accounts.

He sighed, because if the object of her fangirling had been in another squad then she might have been salvageable. But the next member of his squad was none other than Sasuke Uchiha.

Sasuke was gifted and cursed apparently. He was the last Uchiha and the only survivor from the massacre of his clan. Kakashi had known Sasuke would be in his team, when his old teammate Obito Uchiha had died Rin, his other teammate, had given Kakashi an eye transplant at Obito's request. This meant he was the only sharengan user who could teach Sasuke his bloodline abilities. He sped up, hoping that he could reach the room before any more shouting occurred.

As soon as he entered the room the pink haired girl turned to him and started screaming barely printable abuse:

"**YOU ARE TWO AND A HALF HOURS LATE YOU LAZY MORON YOU KEPT US WAITING YOU STUPID ONE eyed **sen…sei" Sakura trailed off in horror, it took her several seconds after she stopped yelling to realise how she had just insulted an extremely skilled ninja and her sensei.

"sorry" she said in a whisper. Kakashi wiped some blood from his poor ringing ears and ignored her. He looked around the room, Sasuke stood in a brooding position, trying to act as though he had not just pulled his head inside his shirt and held his ears to escape the noise. The last member of the team was sitting at a desk head on his arms, at first Kakashi thought he'd fainted, but then he heard the rhythmic drone from Naruto's still form. He was sleeping, and snoring. Kakashi blinked in surprise. Wow.

"So…" He began, trying to remain cool despite his ringing ears and the dreadful team he had been saddled with. Naruto woke with a grunt, and then he turned and saw Kakashi

"Late" He mumbled "Your late" Kakashi sweatdropped.

"I was, umm, lost on the road of life." Kakashi said. Naruto nodded acknowledgement, then begun to nod off.

"**WAKE UP IDIOT!**" screamed Sakura. Kakashi almost fell over. Naruto sighed and went to turn away when Sakura hit him, but he vanished in a cloud of smoke. There ended up being a dent in the table from her hit. Kakashi sighed,

"My first impression of you lot." Kakashi looked at them all; Naruto had reappeared behind Sasuke and was mimicking his brooding stance. Sasuke was fortunately to busy brooding about something to notice. Sakura was still staring at the table.

"You're all morons" Kakashi finished. Sasuke scowled. Naruto imitated him, but also hanging his tongue out and crossing his eyes. Kakashi sighed.

"Meet me on the roof" he said, and he poofed into smoke. Sasuke realised what Naruto had been doing and tried to hit him, only to have him poof into smoke like Kakashi.

* * *

Kakashi waited on the roof. The disadvantage of the Body flicker technique (being the poofing) was that it made him early. He was resigning himself to a wait when Naruto poofed into existence in front of him.

"Hi." Said Naruto, Kakashi gestured to a seat and Naruto flopped down. They waited in silence, Kakashi considered making conversation, until he heard snoring again. He almost laughed and at that moment Sakura and Sasuke joined them. Sakura who had been trailing just behind Sasuke, probably watching his rear or something, burst forward and went to hit Naruto. Naruto rolled over in his sleep and Sakura hit the metal seat. This didn't dent and Sakura yelped in pain and held her sore hand. Sasuke snorted in irritation, sat on the seat as far away from Naruto as possible, and went back to his brooding. Sakura sat next to him. Kakashi sighed

"Wakey wakey Naruto." He said.

"I wasn't asleep." Naruto said, but he didn't sit up or open his eyes. He even kept snoring. Kakashi sweatdropped, but continued.

"So, I am your Sensei, Kakashi Hatake. Please address me as Sensei ,or Kakashi Sensei." None of them responded. Had Sakura not been listening with rapt attention he would have thought they were all asleep.

"Now, I want you each to introduce yourself to me, and tell me a bit about yourselves."

"What do we say?" asked Sakura. Kakashi sighed

"If I knew what you were going to say I wouldn't ask." Kakashi said wearily. "Say the usual stuff, likes, dislikes dreams. Now, you first"

"I am Sakura Haruno, I like Sasuke. I dislike Naruto and Ino Yamanaka, especially Naruto. My dream is t…"

"Let's keep this G rated please!" interrupted Naruto; Sakura blushed and tried to punch him. Kakashi was unsurprised to have Naruto burst into smoke. Naruto then stepped out from behind Kakashi. Sakura glared daggers at him but stayed close to Sasuke.

"Emo, your turn" Kakashi said, beginning to get irritated by these genin. Sasuke didn't respond for a while, then he spoke in a quiet and (to Naruto) Emo, voice:

"I like nothing. I dislike fools and girls."

"Bad luck Sakura, your both" Naruto interrupted, Sakura charged at him. Naruto stepped around her and continued, "And Sasuke isn't that hypocritical? I mean, you're definitely a fool and I'm sure you're a…" He had to dodge Sakura as she came for him again. "Girl!" he finished. He now had to doge both of his enraged teammates. Sasuke almost got him too. But then Naruto poofed away and Sasuke crashed into Sakura. Naruto watched the chaos from the roof.

"Please continue Sasuke" Kakashi said. Sasuke tried to regain his dignity from falling on top of Sakura. He returned to his Emo voice.

"I have a dream. I will become the strongest ninja to ever live, and then I will kill the man who murdered my clan." Naruto snorted. Sasuke threw a kunai at him. Kakashi caught it and restrained Sasuke before things could get any more violent.

"My turn?" Asked Naruto.

"Yes, but don't bait you're teammates anymore." Kakashi said.

"No problem!" Naruto said "So, I'm Naruto. I like ramen and everyone who provides me with ramen. I also like Iruka, my old teacher, and Old man Hokage. As for dislikes, well, I dislike pretty much everything else. I hate the old Uchiha clan and the Hyuga for taking over when the Uchiha went where they belonged." Sasuke was looking pissed now. Kakashi was getting worried. "As for dreams, well, I want to be the greatest Ninja in the Hidden leaf village. Then I'll be respected."

"Not going to happen" Sasuke said. Naruto smirked

"You really are asking for it, aren't you, retard?" Sasuke went to attack but Kakashi grabbed him again.

"Save it for tomorrow. I have a test for you. Survival training." Kakashi said. Naruto frowned

"Against each other, or against you?" He asked. Kakashi smirked

"You'll see. Training ground seven, 7 o'clock. Don't eat breakfast, you're just going to throw up." He poofed away and then so did Naruto.

_I need to learn to do that_ thought Sasuke. He was snapped out of his brooding by an annoying voice:

"So Sasuke, I thought that because we were on the same team we could have lunch and get to know each other better." Sasuke leapt across to the next building and fled. Sakura watched him dreamily.

* * *

Naruto was practising; he spent all his spare time doing it, at the moment his practice was chakra exercises while reading his copy of the Forbidden scroll at the same time. The forbidden scroll had seemed a disappointment at first. Another useless clone technique, shadow clone jitsu. Then there was the Rasengan. The third technique was more interesting, how to make Shadow clones explode. That one made him reconsider the Shadow clones. He read the description closely, The shadow clone gathered memories on its own and when dispelled Naruto would get those memories. The shadow clone could use jitsu and attack physically, it was solid. He could also substitute with it. Ok, that was cool. Naruto spent the whole night working on this technique. With his huge chakra store it actually wasn't too difficult. By morning he had it.

_I can't wait to see the look on the other's faces when I use this on them!_

Naruto fell asleep with that happy thought.

The next morning Naruto got up at five thirty and had breakfast. He knew Kakashi had told him not to but he had special training to do. He was working on substitution again. Once outside the village he began. He would throw a stone in the direction he was heading, and then substitute with it. He would then pick up another stone and repeat the exercise. It took him a surprisingly short time to reach the training grounds; it was barely six in the morning. Substitution practice wasn't particularly tiring so Naruto made a few shadow clones and begun to practice more. As the morning went on Naruto made more and more shadow clones. He had one hundred and four before seven. When some of the clones he had stationed as watchers alerted him to Sasuke's arrival and Sakura trailing him Naruto hurriedly dispelled his clones. He almost gasped as the knowledge from the clones rushed to him. This was effectively eight hours of training in the space of one hour. Naruto grinned.

"What's so funny Naruto?" asked Sakura. She said Naruto like it was an insult (Naru-To!) Naruto wondered why she was in a bad mood, although he could take a good guess.

"Did you reject her marriage proposal Sasuke?" He asked. Sasuke scowled,

"I haven't forgiven you for insulting my clan, dobe. Power is my birth right, I am the last Uchiha!"

Sakura almost swooned. This was Sasuke at his best.

"Bring it on Uchiha." Naruto growled. They charged.

Sasuke kicked high but Naruto ducked his blow, he tried to bring his foot down on the blonde's head but Naruto rolled aside. Sasuke felt his legs fly out from under him as Naruto tripped him. He landed on his back and saw a foot heading for his face. He caught the foot and tugged Naruto off balance. They landed in a heap, Sasuke felt Naruto's other foot hit his belly and he went skidding away across the dirt. Naruto leapt to his feet and entered a taijitsu stance Sasuke didn't know. Sasuke scowled and dusted himself off, then he charged. If Sasuke had access to his sharengan then he might have seen Naruto shift his weight for the throw, but he didn't. Naruto guided Sasuke's fist over his head and then introduced his face to mother earth. Sasuke rolled to his feet and brushed his face clean. Naruto smiled.

"Not going to compliment my Taijitsu? It's a brand new style. Wanna see some more?"

Naruto charged this time; he caught both Sasuke's fists and used his momentum to land a double foot kick in Sasuke's stomach. Sasuke went flying but Naruto still had his arms. As Sasuke almost landed Naruto went to kick him again. Sasuke twisted to dodge the kick and then retaliated. Naruto let go and stepped back, watching the kick fly past. Sasuke was getting even more pissed off now; he was losing this taijitsu spar. He was Sasuke, he didn't lose, time to step this up a notch.

"Fire release: Flame Bullet!" Sasuke spat a large fireball at Naruto. The fireball hit and exploded with an impressive boom, as the flames died down they revealed, nothing…

Sasuke swore, then he felt a flying kick to the back of his head.

* * *

"Five members gone, Not dead, not traitors, just gone. It irritates me somewhat." Itachi Uchiha raised his hand and ticked them off "Pain and Konan. We replaced them easily enough. Deidara had been in consideration for some time and Tobi just wouldn't quit until he got a place. Now he's gone, and Kakuzu and Hidan went too."

"I didn't realise you were fond of any of them" Said the boy. "In fact I thought that, given your mission, you would treat them as enemies." Itachi hid his surprise expertly,

"You know things no person should know." He said neutrally. The boy smirked

"My tale is all true." He said.

"I can see that." Itachi replied. The boy stood to leave but Itachi stopped him. "Your name, I never asked it."

"I am Kadabi Dakato."

As he left Itachi behind he noted one of the other Akatsuki following him, it was pretty clear by the silhouette which one it was.

"I was expecting you to follow Tobi" Kadabi said. He didn't need to look around.

"I considered it" Said Zetsu

"Of course you did, but I am pleased you decided to stay. You chose well, even if I fail the Akatsuki you can say you were planning to betray us."

"Will you fail the Akatsuki?"

"No"

* * *

**Authors Note: To any Sasuke lovers who are still reading I apologise for not warning you. Sasuke and Sakura aren't going to be stupid charecters, but there may be minor bashing in the early chapters.**

**Thankyou to all the people who are following my fanfic. If you have any comments please reveiw.**


	4. Surviving Survival Training

**Authors Note: Sorry for the wait, computer troubles. The next chapter might be a while too, anyway: Beware the Sasuke bashing, it's minor, but I'll just warn you now.**

* * *

Sasuke groaned as he got up, his face had left a large impression in the dirt.

"Sasuke, are you alright?" Sakura gushed. Naruto was sitting by one of the three posts looking bored. Sasuke shoved Sakura away and went to murder Naruto.

"Back again dobe?" Naruto said. Sasuke just walked up and kicked him, Naruto puffed into smoke. Sasuke saw him standing several metres away. As he charged Naruto the blonde vanished again. For the next half hour Sasuke tried to kill Naruto, who simply used the Body Flicker Technique to evade him with obvious ease.

It was the most humiliating experience of Sasuke's life.

* * *

Kakashi had actually arrived on time; he was just waiting for a while to maintain his always late reputation. Seeing two of his students about to kill each other convinced him of the need to intervene. He poofed into existence behind Sasuke, who tried to behead him with a kunai because he thought it was Naruto. Kakashi lazily caught the kunai and when Sasuke saw who he had tried to kill the fight froze.

"Stupid, stupid, stupid! If you don't want to be serious join a circus!" Kakashi snapped. These guys were really getting on his nerves.

"I said you would have plenty of time for fighting later! Be grateful I don't fail you here and now, because you aren't going to have much hope at this rate." Kakashi sighed, too lazy to continue yelling; besides this would be all the more fun if they were feeling aggressive.

Kakashi briefly outlined the bell test; the aim was to get one of the two bells, because there were not three bells one of the trio would fail. The test seemed to be a simple test of skill, but there was a secret to it.

As soon as he was done explaining, although he left out the secret bit, Kakashi had to dodge Naruto's attack. While Sasuke and Sakura ran for cover Naruto fought Kakashi. It wouldn't have been much of a battle, a genin barely out of the academy fighting an advanced jounin, perhaps the best in the leaf village. Kakashi was better at taijitsu, ninjitsu, genjitsu and basically everything else, but Naruto had a strategy. Naruto got into the stance he had used earlier against Sasuke, weight on his back foot, front foot only lightly touching the ground. His hands were close together for easy use of handseals and his weight was low to give him leverage. A defensive stance, not aggressive, Naruto wanted Kakashi to charge him. Kakashi charged. Naruto threw a kunai but Kakashi ducked and kept running. He missed Naruto's grin. As he drew within a metre of Naruto smoke poofed. Kakashi realised too late that it was a substitution, not a body flicker. The kunai Naruto had thrown dug painfully into his shoulder. Kakashi was too amazed at Naruto's sudden increase of skill to realise Naruto would be just behind him. He discovered how Sasuke might have felt after getting a kick to the head just then.

The kick had hit him but Kakashi was able to substitute with a log before he hit the dirt. Naruto looked around for any sign of Kakashi but he was alone. Kakashi had gone to look for easier targets.

* * *

Kakashi watched as Sakura cradled her dead love, she screamed and screamed, Oh Sasuke! No Sasuke! I love you Sasuke! It was one of Kakashi's genjitsu, but any proficient Shinobi should be able to counter it. Getting tired of her wailing and screaming Kakashi strode over to her and knocked her out. He hissed slightly in pain as he did so, the wound on his shoulder had been deep but not crippling, also his ears were still ringing. He ate a pain numbing pill, it took away the pain but his ears still rang. Because his ears were ringing he didn't see Sasuke until the last second.

Kakashi caught Sasuke's punch and swung him into a tree.

"Chakra exhaustion." Kakashi commented "You expended far too much energy fighting Naruto" Sasuke sprang up and they began a furious fight, well, furious for Sasuke, Kakashi didn't have too much trouble.

"Need a hand, teme?" There was an almost comical moment when the fight paused and both Sasuke and Kakashi looked up to see Naruto standing on a branch. He grinned at them

"The most outstanding young ninja of Konoha it here!" He poofed down to their level. "I've figured out the test! Its teamwork isn't it? We need to work as a team to get the bells."

"Of course" Muttered Sasuke "Teams never have less than three genin; I should have seen it sooner."

"Well Sasuke," Naruto said. He was grinning and Sasuke couldn't help himself, he grinned back

"Let's get him!" They both leapt at Kakashi.

* * *

Sakura heard yelling and woke to see Kakashi being attacked by Sasuke and Naruto. She wondered if she was dreaming, Sasuke looked fine, but he would never help Naruto like that. She got up to help Sasuke.

* * *

Kakashi was busy winning when he felt the genjitsu descend on him. He looked around startled, it had to be Sakura, but he was too busy to go find her. The genjitsu was brilliantly simple. It slowed down Kakashi's eyes, so that Sasuke and Naruto looked several seconds behind where they actually were. Kakashi was hit several times before he leapt away and dispelled the illusion. A fist hit his face, Naruto stood right next to him. Kakashi frowned, two Narutos? Then the one near Sasuke poofed into smoke. Kakashi froze, could it be?

"Like my new clone jitsu? Let me give a better Demonstration. This is…" Naruto made a handseal "SHADOW CLONE JITSU!" over one hundred Narutos appeared in the clearing. Kakashi barely had time to get his guard up before they charged. The original Naruto didn't attack. He walked over to Sasuke. Sakura joined them. Sasuke briefly explained their realisation on the test.

"Never take your eyes off your enemy, there are three of you, one should always be on watch." The genin jumped when Kakashi appeared behind them

"You didn't get any bells, but you all worked together to try and get them. Congratulations, I hadn't been expecting you to pass." Sakura blinked

"Wait, we pass?" She whooped. Naruto whooped much louder, Sasuke snorted.

"By the way Naruto, I was amazed at how well you worked together with Sasuke." Kakashi said. Naruto grinned seeing an opportunity to insult the Emo

"Of course we worked well, I spent all night training him!" He cried, Sasuke scowled but Kakashi couldn't resist giving Naruto ammunition to use against Sasuke.

"It only took one night?" He said, glad of the mask to hide his smile.

"Of course it only took one night, I'm awesome Kakashi Sensei, I could teach the Inuzuka clan a thing or two about dog training!" Naruto cried

Sasuke tried to kill him, but he didn't try as hard as he might have a few hours ago.

* * *

It had been several hours, Naruto had refused to train on his more interesting pursuits while Sasuke and Sakura were watching. Kakashi had pretended to leave but had soon come sneaking back. Once he was sure Sasuke and Sakura weren't watching he came over to Naruto and sat down beside him.

"How many new jitsu have you made?" Kakashi said, getting straight to the point. Naruto, however wasn't willing to go straight to the point

"What makes a jitsu S rank?"

"S rank? Why do you want to know?"

"I'll tell you if you explain." Naruto said, Kakashi blinked, he hadn't been expecting an answer like that.

"Almost all jitsu can kill, but S ranks are unique. They are can be super deadly to your enemies and capable of killing huge numbers of people. Or, at times they could require a sacrifice, or they could be dangerous to you. Some jitsu require massive amounts of chakra, even more than your shadow clones."

"Can you describe any of these jitsu?"

"They are few, and even I haven't seen most. There is the Raikiri, the lightening cutter. And there is the Rasenshuriken, something no one has ever even been able to create."

"Rasenshuriken? Funny you should mention that."

Kakashi wasn't sure how to react.

"Not possible, you can't have made that one too. Its way more advanced than the normal Rasengan. It involves melding your elemental affinity into a complete Rasengan! Nobody can do it!"

"Oh, well I can't do that. When you said Rasenshuriken I thought it was like a minture one that you could throw. That's what this is: Rasengan, shuriken style." Naruto raised his hand; a flat spinning disk of chakra appeared there, like a shuriken.

"The chakra only spins one way so it's easy to create. It cuts because it is so narrow, even though it is brittle from the top." Naruto threw his chakra shuriken at the trees. It carved a deep groove through them. Kakashi looked at Naruto with new respect, he didn't want to admit that this was an ingenious jitsu. To gloss over this point Kakashi continued to describe S ranked jitsu

"One of the worst ones I've ever seen is the Lightening release: Back Secret Technique, descending death. It is perhaps the deadliest technique in the world."

"How does it work?"

"You would need to have an affinity of lightning, and you would need to be a true master. Only one person has ever done it successfully."

"Does it take that much chakra?"

"No, that's why it's so dangerous. It takes none at all."

"Is that possible?"

"Yes, but the technique requires chakra control beyond what any individual human should have."

"Can you explain it?"

"Not now, but if you prove worthy I shall tell you the theory."

"Worthy?"

"Just train, you're already a great ninja." Kakashi said, Naruto smiled and nodded.

After Kakashi left Naruto went straight to training. He summoned one hundred shadow clones in one go and set to work.

While the clones trained the original Naruto was thinking. He had been thinking more and more lately. He was currently making a new strategy to cover his difficulty with making complicated hand seals. He grinned his foxy grin as an idea struck him.

Kakashi watched from his place in the trees as all the clones stopped what they were doing and begun a different style of training. Kakashi watched in confusion

_What on earth would Naruto want with the Suna art of pupeteering?_

He soon found out, and when he did he suppressed a shiver, Naruto was starting to scare him.

* * *

"I am impressed by our progress." Kisame said. Kadabi turned to him

"We are proceeding on schedule. I expect us to be ready within the month."

Kisame nodded, the plan seemed suicidal at first glance, but it sort of made sense.

"Are you prepared for Orouchimaru's attack?"

"Of course I am, Itachi will be travelling with us as our "Sensei"" Kisame could hear the quotation marks in Kadabi's voice. The Boy's confidence was unshakeable, but Kisame still hoped Itachi would kick his ass someday.

"Your entries have been exepted, your team shall compete in the Konoha Chunin Exams"

* * *

**Authors Note: This chapter was tricky to write, but here it is and I'm pleased with how it's turned out.**

**As always please reveiw with sggestions,improvements or, anything really. Thanks all.**


	5. Exams, Mizuki, and a Tortoise

"The _Chunin Exams?_" Naruto said. "And you put us in?"

Kakashi sighed; he had been expecting this reaction.

"Yes, you guys are in the Chunin exams."

Kakashi had several reasons to put his team in, they had improved out of sight just one month, even Kakashi hadn't expected so much. Sasuke's improvements were obvious, and he knew it, he wore an air of smug confidence and that annoying Uchiha arrogance. Naruto hid his skills, but Kakashi had seen him training and had some idea of what he could do. Sakura wasn't a fighter, and was miles behind her teammates, but she had at least lost some of her stupidity.

"Will we be ok?" Sakura asked

"Probably not." Kakashi said. "But that doesn't matter, here are the forms and they're due the day after tomorrow." Kakashi handed them each a form "You don't have to hand these in, it's entirely optional." Then he vanished in a poof of smoke.

Both Naruto and Sasuke immediately filled out their forms, but Sakura hesitated. She knew she was bad, and she didn't want to get hurt or killed. On the other hand she wanted to stay with Sasuke, but if she entered the exam she would probably fail.

* * *

Sasuke left first and she followed him dejectedly. Naruto went the other way to meet a friend.

Naruto's friend was Konohamaru Sarutobi, the grandson of the Hokage, the old man; the two had met after Naruto was told off for something (Naruto had forgotten what)

Konohamaru had come bursting in and attacked Naruto, the two had become friends immediately. Konohamaru liked being the son of the Hokage, but he hated it at the same time. He hated how people only called him "Honourable Grandson" He wanted to prove to the world that he was a great ninja. Naruto thought Konohamaru had a lot of potential; after all, Konohamaru had been critical in the development of Naruto's awsomest jutsu. That had all begun when Konohamaru complained the Old man was a closet pervert. They had both mastered the jutsu but they hadn't had a chance to test it yet, Naruto couldn't wait.

As Naruto came closer to where they had agreed to meet he heard a scream.

He ran around a corner and spotted a black clad boy, a few years older than himself, who wore a Suna headband. Naruto briefly noticed the strange mask looking thing the boy wore, but then he forgot it as he saw the boy held Konohamaru by the throat.

* * *

"Naruto help!" Konohamaru gasped, he was trying to put an arm lock on the Suna boy, but his small hands didn't have the strength.

"You attacked me, you shouldn't have done that" The boy said.

"Let me go! I'm the grandson of the Hokage!" Konohamaru yelled, he was trying to kick the Suna boy but it was having no effect.

"I don't care who you are, I'm Kankuro, the son of the Kazekage, and I'll do what I want."

"Let him go." Naruto said, his killing intent flared and he directed it straight at the boy, Kankuro. Kankuro smirked

"You have no idea what true killing intent feels like. I hope my brother gives you a taste before he crushes the life out of you." Then he threw Konohamaru down and walked away. Naruto vanished in a poof and blocked his way.

"Who is your brother?" He asked. Kankuro smirked again.

"Don't worry about him yet, worry about my sister." He said. Naruto leapt to the side, just in time to avoid the massive fan swung at him by the girl behind him. He turned to her, she was tall and lean and quite pretty, she wore white and also had a Suna headband. She turned to Kankuro

"Leave it brother; we're here for the Exams, not to teach Konoha about respect" She said. Kankuro scowled,

"Actually Temari, these kids are really annoying. I think I'll finish this."

"No."

The new voice was accompanied by a massive surge of killing intent. Kankuro staggered under the sheer force of it. Naruto looked up and saw a red haired boy standing in a tree above them. The boy was small and younger than the other Suna but Temari and Kankuro both looked terrified of him. The boys eyes were dark rimmed and he was pale. His voice held a menace that was terrifyingly familiar, although Naruto couldn't place how he knew it.

"Leave them, Kankuro. Or I'll kill you now." The boy said. Kankuro nodded.

"Yes Gaara. I'm sorry." Kankuro left as fast as he could, Temari followed.

Naruto waited for Gaara to leave as well, but he just stood there and watched Naruto. Naruto felt a chill on his spine and quickly helped up Konohamaru. Then they left. After they were gone Gaara spoke to himself,

"Mother wants your blood. Mother will be happy now." Then he turned and a cloud of sand covered him. When it vanished so had he.

* * *

Naruto took Konohamaru home but Konohamaru insisted that he couldn't tell anyone.

"They'd just treat me like a baby, I won't tell them. I'm fine! You can't tell them either!" Naruto nodded, he knew Konohamaru well enough to know the boy would never want people to treat him like a baby.

Naruto had realised by now that there were people in this exam he knew nothing about, people he would have to fight. He summoned ten shadow clones and set them to start spying, five more were sent to look up the list of genin entering the exams, paying particular attention to the Suna team and their origins. Once he had created these clones Naruto had nothing to do but wait at training ground seven. He had discovered the clones could communicate with him telepathically at short range, so he was kept updated through the evening.

Naruto didn't want to waste his chakra a few days before the exams but he decided to start training to pass the time. He was so caught up in his training that he almost missed the feeling of one of his clones being dispelled.

* * *

The other clones he had summoned all paused in their training; Naruto closed his eyes and reviewed the memories of the clone. It was one of the spying clones, it had been searching for genin who were staying in Konoha and it had come across a boy sitting against a tree in training ground three. The clone had stopped to watch the boy, then suddenly something coiled around its ankle and slammed in into the ground. The clone was not dispelled by the blow but it could only watch the boy stand and come over to it.

"My name is Godai, and you'd better start running Uzumaki."

The boy considered the clone, then wrapped a narrow wire around its neck and throttled it.

Naruto shuddered slightly at the feeling of being strangled by wire. His mind was racing, the boy seemed quite skilful, able to easily spot the clone and kill it. He would be worth keeping an eye on. He wouldn't be too hard to track hopefully, as he wore a rather distinctive black cloak. A black cloak with red clouds on it.

* * *

Naruto spent most of the next day at the training ground too, and into the night, in fact he only stopped when he remembered he should rest up for tomorrow. He wasn't confident exactly, but he knew he could handle this, probably. As he fell asleep Naruto wondered how Sakura and Sasuke were going.

Sasuke was fine, of course. He was currently brooding about the man who murdered his clan, Itachi uchiha, his own brother. Had he not been brooding he might have noticed the figure at the window. Had he noticed that figure he would have gone and investigated, had he caught them he would have wondered at their black and red cloak, and had he seen the figure's face he would have noticed a striking resemblance to himself, and a full Sharingan spinning that man's eyes.

But Sasuke fell asleep ignorant of his brother's watchful gaze.

* * *

Sakura was less than fine, she was in a fit of worry about the exams, she was sure she would die. She had asked her parents but they told her to follow her heart. Useless! She was torn by indecision. She left her bed and sat on the house roof to watch the stars. After a while she fell asleep there and she dreamed of dying to save Sasuke. Her sleepy mind wondered if she would really be brave enough to do something like that. Tomorrow she would find out.

Tomorrow dawned bright and clear, Naruto was freezing cold. Probably because he had slept outside. Suddenly he realised someone was standing over him.

Naruto sprang to his feet and saw Mizuki. Naruto had been trying to figure out a way to reveal Mizuki's treachery without seeming insane for weeks. He had dropped several hints about Mizuki but nothing had happened to the man. Now here he was, Naruto had been training for the chunin exams but he was more than ready to try and kill this traitor. He sprang forward to attack.

"Wait! I'm not here to fight you." Mizuki said. Naruto stopped, then he walked forward and placed a kunai at Mizuki's throat.

"Talk, now" He spat.

"I'm not in the least afraid of you, and I know you don't fear me, but should fear my master Naruto. He is a very powerful man. He is willing to offer you a deal however. He wants Sasuke. You have little love for Sasuke do you? We can take him off your hands. Konoha is in great danger Naruto, and you have to choose, Sasuke or Konoha? If you choose Konoha all you need to do is send a signal in the forest of death, tell the Girl on the Otogakure team you accept, she will tell you where to go, and my master will handle things from there."

"Why should I do that?"

"Konoha will be destroyed if you don't. Choose well." Then Mizuki slipped out of Naruto's grasp and walked away. Naruto swore quietly as Mizuki vanished, then he started heading in the opposite direction, back to Konoha.

* * *

All the way to Konoha Naruto was wondering. He had no idea who Mizuki's "master" was, with all the ninja in Konoha it would take an army to endanger the village at all. Konoha wasn't at war, how was it possible?

Then there was the choice. Konoha or Sasuke? It wasn't a hard choice, Konoha of course, but why? Why would anyone want Sasuke?

Naruto met up with Sasuke and Sakura just outside the door. The y shared a little team bonding moment when they looked at each other, then they nodded and entered.

On the second floor a large number of genin had gathered. There was some yelling and Naruto wondered if a fight had started. As they went along the corridor The three of them noticed that the room signs said they were on level three.

"Genjutsu" Whispered Sakura to the others. Naruto and Sasuke nodded. They glanced at the scene briefly. A trio of konoha were being beaten up by a pair of slightly older konoha ninja

"No weak ninja can get in here, only strong may pass." Said one arrogantly.

"C'mon guys." Naruto said and they took the stairs to the third floor.

* * *

"Wait!" cried a loud voice.

Sasuke, Sakura and Naruto had just entered a large hall when somebody called from a balcony. The voice belonged to a gennin who wore a very weird green skin-tight suit. The boy also had helmet like shiny black hair and massive, massive eyebrows.

"Those are big eyebrows" Whispered Sakura. Naruto nodded in shocked agreement. Sasuke acted unsurprised and unweirded-out but Naruto was sure he was shocked too.

"Sasuke Uchiha! I have heard much of your exploits! Let us learn who is the stronger of us now!"

Huh…? Went Naruto and Sakura. Sasuke continued to act cool and bored.

"What do you mean, "The strongest"? I'm the strongest" Naruto said. The boy flipped down from the balcony and landed in a taijutsu stance

"Stay out of our way gennin, I do not want you to be hurt!" Said the green gennin. Naruto fumed.

"Sasuke! Let's thrash this guy!"

"No. I'm not fighting with you Naruto, I'll fight alone." Sasuke said. Naruto was taken aback.

"But we work so well together. Remember fighting Kakashi? We did perfect."

"We lost against Kakashi. I couldn't trust you anyway, you might fail me in a fight."

"Fine. And I thought you had changed." Naruto turned away bitterly.

Sasuke turned back to the green gennin in time to see a strange sight. The gennin had blown several kisses at Sakura and she was running from them, trying to dodge them. She reached the wall and twisted aside and the kisses crashed into it. Naruto turned around and watched the scene in confusion.

"Who are you anyway?" Sasuke asked the green gennin.

"I'm Rock Lee! The most youthful ninja in Konoha!" Cried the green gennin.

"Humph, Well fine. After all I have been waiting for a chance to use my Kekkei Genkai… The Sharingan!" Sasuke cried, and his eyes turned red. Red with one tomote in his left eye, and two in his right. Then Sasuke attacked, his speed was incredible, he must have been training furiously to reach such skill. Naruto scowled at the arrogant bastard and wished him a humiliating death.

Sasuke was almost onto Rock Lee and he drew back his fist, but Rock Lee was no longer there. Sasuke could only watch, his Sharingan slowing everything down to agonising detail, his body to slow to react, as Rock Lee slid under his punch and, using the floor as leverage, kicked Sasuke in the face, hard. Naruto nearly cheered as Sasuke went flying toward the roof. Suddenlt Rock Lee was in the air too, right behind Sasuke.

"Do you accept your defeat!?" Lee cried, Sasuke had difficulty speaking due to the pain,

"No" He spat out.

"Then face my greatest move!"

Rock Lee spread his arms and Naruto noticed his hands were bandaged. The Bandages wrapped around Sasuke, but Naruto's attention was on the torn and bloody hands Rock Lee revealed. He must have been training nonstop for months, or even years. As Lee's bandages wrapped around Sasuke a flying pinwheel suddenly tore them off course. Sasuke landed in a heap and Lee landed in a bowing position. Naruto and Sakura were getting werided out, especially when Rock Lee started begging the turtle across the room for forgiveness.

Naruto blinked, _Turtle?_

Sakura could barely think, this was way way to weird. Suddenly there was a poof of smoke and a man in a green jumpsuit appeared on the turtle's back. The man proclaimed his name was Gai, and posed with his thumbs up, teeth shining. Naruto started backing away, ready to run for it. Then Rock Lee began to cry and soon Gai was crying too, while the turtle sniffled in the background. Something snapped in Naruto's mind and he fled the scene, Sasuke and Sakura close behind him.

The three of them saw a door and ran for it, desperate to escape.

"Nice to see you to." Said Kakashi boredly, as they ran past him without even noticing him.

"I'm glad you were brave enough to come" He continued. But they were gone.

"Sensei!"

"Lee!"

"Sensei!"

"LEE!"

Kakashi realised why his team had been running and decided to make a quick exit.

* * *

Naruto threw open the door and barged into a large room.

"Safety!" He gasped and fell to the floor. Sakura ran in and tripped over him, Sasuke slammed the door behind them.

"What's going on?" Said a loud voice. Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke looked up, just as a wave of killing intent crashed down on them. The whole room was full of murderous gennin.

**Authors Note: That chapter took a while to write. If you've read the comments on my Fanfic you will have noticed several questions. I have endevourd to answer most of them in this chapter. Please comment if you don't get it, or just comment anyway.**

**Also, I have been wondering if I should give my chapters names. Comment your thoughts please, and feel free to suggest chapter names.**

**Thanks for reading! - 4Dragons**


	6. Bad Guys: a Spotters Guide

As Naruto looked at the other genin who were going to take the exam, as they sat at desks or stood, only one thought went through his head:

_Oh crap. That's a lot of genin, I don't think we can beat so many._

The genin glared at team seven, team seven wished they could disappear.

"Sasuke! You're here!" cried a voice, suddenly Sasuke was knocked flat by a purple blur. The blur turned out to be Ino Yamanaka, who preceded to try and hug Sasuke. Sasuke quickly rolled aside and stood back. Ino's teammates, Choji Akimichi and Shikamaru Nara, rolled their eyes at her obvious insanity.

"N-naruto" whispered a new voice. Naruto turned to see Hinata and her team, Kiba Inuzuka and Shino Aburame. Kiba stepped over to Naruto

"I can't believe you hopeless weirdos got into the Chunin exam."

"Hey! We're the best team in the room mongrel!" Naruto cried. All the Academy graduates started arguing. The other genin in the room were too surprised to teach them a lesson, but they were recovering from their confusion quickly. Another Konoha ninja decided to halt the situation before a fight broke out.

"Would you mind shutting up?"

Naruto turned to see a young man with white hair and glasses walking toward them. He was quite old for a genin and he seemed too confident for someone who had little experience as a ninja.

"What's it to you?" snapped Kiba.

"Sorry, but the other genin are looking a bit mad. So just quiet down a bit ok?" The academy graduates nodded and the teams broke apart. The white haired genin stayed with Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura.

"I'm Kabuto by the way, and I've taken the Exam more than once, so I might be able to help you guys. I'm good at spying, and I have a lot of information on the teams this year."

"Why are you helping us?" Sasuke asked.

"Konoha should be united against the other villages, without distrust. Plus I like the look of you guys. So what do you want to know?"

"Who do you think is worth mentioning?" Sasuke asked.

"Well, there are three teams that immediately come to mind, wait, four actually. I don't know enough about them to be sure, but the ones I'm thinking of seem above normal genin level."

Kabuto opened one of his pockets and drew out a deck of cards.

"My information is stored on these cards, only I can access it. So, here is one for a rain genin team named Team Oboro. All rain ninja are good at genjutsu, it's important to face such ninja on your choice of battlefield. An ambush should work best." Kabuto showed them a card with three ninja on it. They all wore metal masks over their mouths and had white jumpsuits.

"Hey, those guys are just over there." Naruto whispered, pointing them out.

"All the teams I'm showing are real, and they're all here." Kabuto said. Then Naruto caught a glimpse of red. The red hair of a ninja with a stone gourd on his back.

"That team Kabuto, who are they?"

"They're pretty dangerous. The sand siblings, all of them are children of the Kazekage. The girl is called Temari, wind user. Try to get close against her. Kankuro, the older brother is a puppet user. Could be capable of anything, depending on the puppet, try to get close again. The youngest is Gaara, I know nothing about him, but he practically radiates danger so I'd be very careful.

One of the other teams is team Dozu, they're from the sound village. I know nothing about their abilities, but they could have jutsu never seen before."

"Boo…"

The genin spun around in surprise. They recognised the team there as the Sound genin immediately.

"Little genin shouldn't draw attention to themselves." said the leader, a boy who was entirely bandaged except for one eye. He sprang forward at Kabuto, who swayed back just out of range. For a second Naruto heard a buzzing noise. Kabuto's glasses cracked and he fell flat on his back.

"Sound attack." He gasped.

"See you later." Said the sound genin, and the team walked away.

"Are you ok Kabuto?" Sakura asked. She opened her pouch "I have painkillers if you want one."

"No, I'm fine. It wasn't a very hard attack."

"Just rest a bit." Sakura suggested.

"No wait. Before the exams start I want to warn you of one team in particular."

"What do you mean?" Sasuke asked "What's so special about one team?"

"I don't know, but they aren't normal genin. I've been trying to discover more about them."

Naruto shivered suddenly, he was suddenly seized with unease. He sensed something, he felt a powerful push, like he was a pole of a magnet, and a pole of the same force was pushing him. At the same time he felt drawn. His head turned, and someone walked through the door.

Kabuto suddenly gagged, and fell back. Then he shook himself and stood.

"Oh, I feel a bit sick" Sakura mumbled.

"Me too." Said Sasuke "What is this? Is it a jutsu?"

Killing intent flared at the new arrivals then it cut off, as if by a switch. The three genin weren't physically intimidating, in fact they had no features at all, they all wore black cloaks, studded with red clouds. The cloaks obscured their bodies and their tasselled hats hid their faces.

Naruto recognised them, He had met one of them yesterday, the boy had destroyed his clone. He couldn't tell which one that was until he looked up, caught Naruto's eye and smirked. The three of them took seats at the back of the room. All other genin nearby retreated several metres, there was something about this team that was unsettling.

* * *

A few minutes later there was a poof of smoke as nearly twenty Konoha ninja appeared on the raised dais at the front of the room. The leader, a man with a huge presence that seemed to fill the whole room, and a scarred face, opened his mouth to bellow for silence, but the room was quiet already, and he didn't have to yell. It was subtle bat Naruto thought he looked disappointed.

"Hello there, you poor brave souls, I am Ibiki. You shall address me as Ibiki Sensei if you want to live. I am the proctor for this exam, and as of now, I am your worst enemy!"

Most of the genin were caught off guard by the vicious tone. The Otogakure team, the sound genin snorted in amusement, arrogant amusement. Ibiki marked them down as troublemakers, they might need to be disciplined.

"This is a written exam! You will have to write, if that bothers anyone then that person should leave now, and their team shall be disqualified too. Anyone leaving? No?"

Ibiki snorted, as if enjoying a private joke.

"This exam has rules, I shall explain them once only."

* * *

Ibiki went on to explain the rules. The test was ten questions long, you started with a perfect score, 10/10 You could only loose points, One point lost for a wrong answer, or an unanswered question. Two points lost if you were caught cheating. Nine of the questions were on the sheet, the tenth would only be revealed in the least few minutes of the test. All the other Ninja took seats around the room, waiting to catch any cheaters.

Ibiki ordered everyone into previously assigned seats. Naruto was nowhere near Sasuke or Sakura but he was next to Hinata. Hinata smiled nervously at him Naruto smiled back. While Naruto glanced after a few seconds Hinata gazed at Naruto for a whole minute.

Naruto looked around to see who was on his other side. His heart rate rose when he saw a Black cloak with red clouds on it. It was the boy from yesterday, the boy who strangled his clone. Naruto took a moment to remember his name, Godai. Naruto got a proper look at his face for the first time. He had steel grey hair, not grey with age, a shiny grey, as if his hair were made of metal. His face was nasty, sinister. He sensed Naruto's gaze and turned to him.

"Are you scared?" Godai teased

"Not as scared as you should be." Naruto said

"You have no idea, we aren't here for the exam, we're here for you."

Naruto wanted to ask him what he meant, but then Ibiki called for their attention.

"You may be wondering why all these ninja are here, they are here to catch any of you cheating. For your own sakes don't be caught cheating. Now! Show us what great shinobi you can be, Start!"

* * *

Naruto barely heard the word start, and while most people flipped over their sheet straight away, Naruto was too deep in thought. He had figured out Kakashi's bell test, and he was sure this was similar. He didn't know why he was sure, but he was. Ibiki's words,

"Don't be _caught_ cheating" "Show us what great shinobi you can be!"

Naruto started to figure it out, and he found further proof when he turned the sheet over. The questions were ridiculously hard. Naruto looked them over, he thought he had done enough book learning stuff, but he didn't know a single one of these.

_Only Sakura would know these questions, if I could just see her sheet…_

_That's it! We have to cheat, and not get caught!_

Naruto may have figured out the test, but figuring out how to cheat was trickier, he was decidedly lacking in stealth skills and information gathering. He looked around for ideas, it was hard to spot anyone cheating, which was probably to be expected, or Ibiki would have caught them, suddenly a kunai flew past his face and buried itself in a desk behind him, someone yelped in shock.

"Cheating, two points lost. I hope you can answer the questions right, because you are gonna fail."

Naruto looked hurriedly back at his sheet, but the questions were too hard, so he looked around again. Hinata, he suddenly noticed, had her Byakugan activated, she would almost certainly be able to see someone with the answers, but Naruto felt bad when he thought of copying from Hinata. On his other side he heard Godai scribbling with his pencil. He glanced at his sheet from the corner of his eye. Godai had drawn a little kid, he was a good drawer, he was now drawing the same kid, but a little bit older. His answers were blank.

On the edge of the room he saw Gaara, still with the gourd on his back, but he was too far away to copy his answers. There was no one near enough to copy off.

"_Naruto…" _The voice was so quiet that Naruto wasn't even sure he'd heard it. _"Na-naruto, copy my answers" _Naruto recognised Hinata's whisper. He saw that she had revealed the first question and her answer on her sheet. Naruto felt awkward, but he decided to accept Hinata's offer and started copying out of the corner of his eye, he didn't want to be caught.

"Thankyou" He whispered to her.

* * *

Time passed, the test was almost over, Naruto had copied all nine questions off Hinata, he was eternally grateful to her. Several people had been caught cheating too many times and had to leave. Now that he didn't need to write anymore Naruto took another look around. Several other people had apparently finished too, they were sitting back and waiting for the tenth question. Most of the group were still writing, maybe they had taken a while to work out the purpose of the test, or maybe they were having trouble copying.

On Naruto's other side, Godai was still drawing, and his answers were still blank. He had now drawn a whole life story, the little kid he had drawn grew up around the border, a new picture for every fiveish years. Then he died, decapitated. The next picture showed him dead again, this time he had been gutted, it was disgusting. The third picture had him in a huge pool of blood, throat cut. The next picture showed _someone_,it was impossible to say who as they had been torn to shreds. The next was a charred corpse. The pictures went on and on, each showing a different death. Naruto looked away hurriedly.

"Right! The final question is in five minutes!" Ibiki bellowed.

Godai smirked and muttered to himself "Lucky I'm done."

Naruto heard him and glanced at his sheet out of the corner of his eye. The question boxes were now answered with neat handwriting, there was no way he could have written it so quickly. Naruto was busy trying to figure out how he had done it when Ibiki called for silence.

"Well, you have made it this far. By now you have all realised the point of this test was to cheat. You have done so, and you haven't even been caught. You must all be feeling very proud of yourselves. Unfortunately, cheating won't help you on this question. The rules have changed, anyone who can't face this question, anyone who thinks they will get it wrong, may leave."

The genin all muttered amongst themselves, but nobody left.

"Oh! I forgot to mention, if you decide to take the question, but fail… YOU WILL NEVER BE NINJA! I WILL PERSONALLY MAKE SURE YOU NEVER EVEN TAKE ANOTHER CHUNIN EXAM!"

Ibiki's eyes roamed the room, none of the genin he looked at met his gaze. The someone rose from their seat and fled the room. As if a dam had broken people rose and left, some almost running in their desperation to get out.

"Is that everyone? Nobody else? Your all confident you can handle the final question?"

Ibiki started laughing. Another genin's nerve broke. Then Ibiki spoke

"The tenth question is…"

* * *

**Author's Note: Anyone who has seen the chunin exam arc will understand how rubbish a cliff hanger this chapter ends on, but it was as good a place to stop as any. Up until now the chapters haven't had many fight scenes in them, that will change next chapter.**

**People have been commenting on my bad Naruto vocabulary, I have been misspelling "Jitsu" and "Gennin" simply because I didn't know how to spell them. If I have misspelled any other words, or left a plot hole, or just not explained myself please review with suggestions. Thankyou for reading.**

**-4Dragons**


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